The Westerville Police Department handcuffed a 7-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother and
locked them in a holding cell after a fight on a school bus in October.

Charges were filed after the two children became unruly, pushing the bus driver, swearing and
threatening to punch the school principal, according to records describing the Oct. 19
incident.

The children’s mother, Tonya Mitchell, 29, thinks the police department and the Westerville
school district discriminated against her children, wrongfully imprisoned them, used excessive
force and violated their civil rights.

The experience terrified the children, causing nightmares and a fear of police officers,
Mitchell’s attorney, Byron L. Potts, said yesterday at a news conference in his Downtown
office.

Westerville Police Chief Joseph Morbitzer said he couldn’t comment on the arrests because
Mitchell said she intends to sue the department and the school district.

“Just take a look at the facts of the case,” Morbitzer said when contacted after the news
conference, adding that with very young children, “ your last course of action is an arrest.”

But a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said it’s difficult to determine
what crime the children committed.

“Kids mouthing off, not sitting still, taking things off the shelf — does that sound like a
crime?” said Carrie Davis, staff attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, when asked about the arrest.

“State law is pretty clear that you have to have a lawful basis to arrest them. You can’t just
decide, ‘I don’t like the way they’re acting.’”

The Franklin County Juvenile Court dismissed disorderly conduct charges against the siblings
because of their age, according to a police record dated last week.

The brother, Mikeal, and his sister, Michelle, have been expelled from Pointview Elementary for
80 days and have received no schooling since, Potts said.

According to a narrative apparently filled out by the bus driver, the incident started with
Mikeal “taunting and harassing other students. He was saying that each girl student liked Victor
(another student). He kept repeating it.” That led another student to hit Mikeal, the account
said.

If anyone should have been arrested, it was the student who struck Mikeal, Potts said.

“The other people were let off the bus and (left) to do their normal routine.”

When police arrived at the school, they handcuffed the Mitchell children behind their backs,
placed them in separate squad cars, took them to a holding cell at police headquarters and — with
the handcuffs still on — left them to cry and scream, Potts said. Their mother soon arrived, and
the children were released.

According to a narrative apparently written by the arresting officer, the two children would not
sit, said they didn’t have to listen to orders and were becoming “increasingly belligerent.” Potts
provided the narrative.

“So I decided to remove them from the school for their loud and disruptive behavior,” the
officer wrote.

Mitchell estimated that the ride to the police station took 15 minutes and that it took about 10
more minutes to have the children released to her.

The school district would not discuss the arrests.

“We’ll let the process play out,” said district spokesman Greg Viebranz. No records will be
released, including a videotape of the incident on the bus, because of federal student-privacy law,
he said.